Summer 2004

Faculty Lead In Creation Of National Wireless Education Model

By David Piker

Rose-Hulman faculty members are making major contributions to the success of an academic and industry partnership to create a national model for wireless technology education. Rose-Hulman has emerged as a leader in the Global Wireless Education Consortium (GWEC), which was created to meet the wireless industry's need for more and better engineers. The partnership is also creating numerous educational benefits for Rose-Hulman faculty and students.

When Rose-Hulman Professors David Voltmer and Bruce Black attended their first GWEC conference in 1999, they could foresee the partnership's potential to enhance wireless technology education at Rose-Hulman and nationwide. That potential is being realized and, perhaps, exceeded. Contributions by Voltmer, Black and their colleagues in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have resulted in significant growth of wireless technology programs on campus. Partnering with GWEC has helped Rose-Hulman receive major funding from corporations and foundations to support new, basic and advanced wireless technology courses, and to create new laboratories and innovative teaching materials.

The largest grant received thus far was $250,000 from Texas Instruments. The grant is funding the remodeling this summer of existing labs into an advanced communications laboratory and a second studio lab. The advanced communications lab will benefit 440 students enrolled in courses ranging from high-speed digital design to electromagnetic compatibility. The funds are being used to create new courses, multimedia simulations, a new textbook, education modules and tutorials. Other funds have been received from the National Science Foundation, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, the Kern Family Foundation, and the Alden Trust.

“We became involved in the early stages of the consortium, and that was important to establishing our leadership role,” stated Fred Berry, head of the Rose-Hulman Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). Berry serves on the GWEC Board of Directors, and he also chairs a subcommittee on four-year education programs for the GWEC Curriculum Committee.

Seventy-seven institutions serve as GWEC academic partners. The institutions include colleges such as the University of Texas, Auburn University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Florida Institute of Technology and universities in Canada, Europe, Asia and Mexico. GWEC industry members include AT& T Wireless Services, Award Solutions Inc., Cingular Wireless, UGS, Emona Instruments, Motorola, Movilnet, Sprint, Texas Instruments, and Verizon Wireless. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an affiliate member.

“Rose-Hulman is a proven leader in wireless technology education at the four-year undergraduate level,” stated Susan Sloan, GWEC executive director. “Upon formal release of the GWEC wireless curriculum in October of 2001, Rose- Hulman was quick to access and utilize the materials online,” said Sloan, who serves as a member of the ECE department's advisory committee.

Writing and critiquing online education modules was the first contribution made to the GWEC initiative by ECE Professors Voltmer and Black. “Most of our time was spent editing 25 modules during the summer months,” Voltmer recalled. GWEC industry partners and the National Science Foundation funded the first 46 modules available from GWEC to educational institutions. The GWEC wireless curriculum is currently composed of 52 modules.

The learning modules are a software product faculty and students can access through the Internet that provides multimedia simulations about engineering principles and how laboratory equipment can be used, according to Berry. Rose-Hulman is collaborating with the Academy of Electronic Media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which is providing the animation and Web graphic design services for the modules.

Several undergraduate courses in wireless communication have been established around the GWEC curriculum modules, Sloan noted. “Academic institutions with extensive wireless programs view the modules as a valuable resource for augmenting, enhancing and/or expanding their programs,” she said.

“Our biggest GWEC project under way is the development of the first textbook that will give the modules a curriculum structure,” Berry explained. “The textbook will make it easier for faculty to determine which modules to use for specific courses.” Faculty authors hope to have the textbook completed by the end of the year for distribution by GWEC.